Automatic machines are already known for shelling eggs and collecting the yolks separated from the whites. These machines comprise a number of devices, substantially similar, placed one after another to deal with eggs fed on one at a time by a special feed system. The form given to these machines is generally circular. For reasons of space it is therefore impossible to increase output to any great extend as the diameter of the circle cannot be widened beyond certain limits.
Neither could the machinery be arranged in a number of concentric circular lines or in several lines on different planes for obvious reasons of mechanical and functional incompatibility among the various devices.
Were either of these arrangements to be tried it would be practically impossible to maintain control over the various operations and so over the sequence of movements for each egg.
Machines at present in use have a low hourly output, are subject to operational difficulties, are bulky and costly to run, bearing in mind the amount of waste and consequent irregular output.